With the expansion of the shelter now underway, Su Wu realized that the lower layers, which had been deliberately left untouched, would inevitably need to be excavated completely.
Under these circumstances, the best solution was to relocate the oversized metal storage vault and water reservoir to the lowest level of the shelter.
In addition, adjustments needed to be made to the **hydroponic farm.** The original crops, such as lettuce and other fast-growing vegetables, could have their planting ratios reduced. These vegetables produced far more than Su Wu could consume on his own, and their initial purpose was to serve as trade goods with other shelters. However, with the **watchtower base** and other subsidiary shelters now developing large-scale plantations, the output of the hydroponic farm was no longer as necessary.
Instead of continuing to grow these vegetables, Su Wu decided it was better to free up the space for other purposes—such as planting strawberries, grapes, and similar fruits. In the post-apocalyptic world, such fruits were considered the pinnacle of luxury. Their excellent flavor and versatility made them valuable, whether eaten directly, fermented into fruit wine, used to make desserts, or processed into condiments. These crops would undoubtedly enhance Su Wu's quality of life in the future.
As for the other levels of the shelter, they would remain as they were for now. While some of the functions might be redundant, they could occasionally prove useful, making further adjustments unnecessary.
Overall, the **Farmhouse Shelter**, as the core of Su Wu's domain, would focus primarily on three aspects:
1. **Living environment improvement**
2. **High-end industrial productivity**
3. **Advanced laboratories**
In addition, it would also include essential facilities such as a self-sustaining food production zone, large-scale resource warehouses, a mechanical storage cluster, and a power station. This configuration would enable the shelter to maintain cutting-edge productivity, military strength, and technological advancement while retaining a highly self-sufficient ecosystem.
Even in the most extreme scenarios, such as an earthquake submerging the shelter deep underground, it could still continue operating independently.
At the same time, the shelter's development directly impacted Su Wu's quality of life. He would soon have access to a greater variety of fresh fruits. The garden and seedling area on the fifth underground level, a space reserved for relaxation, would also be significantly expanded, no longer limited to a small area where a few steps would take you to the end.
"Only at this point," Su Wu thought, "can I truly call this place a home underground."
After marking all the planned changes on the three-dimensional map of the shelter, Su Wu observed the AI-simulated blueprint of the new shelter. A profound sense of accomplishment washed over him. Even with the help of the system, achieving such progress in a post-apocalyptic world had not been easy. Every success carried the weight of his effort and determination.
After taking a moment to admire the rendered image of the upgraded shelter, Su Wu shifted his focus to the ninth underground level, the final unutilized layer of the Farmhouse Shelter.
According to the plan, this level would host a **100,000-kilowatt thermal power station**, occupying 3,000 square meters. The resources required to construct it, converted to pre-apocalypse values, would be worth over one billion yuan—more than the total cost of many private shelters in Jianghe City.
The construction was also a massive project. Based on the productivity of the **manufacturing center on the second underground level** and the **industrial production zone on the seventh level**, completing the required parts and assembly would take a staggering **500 hours**. This was time enough to produce 100 to 200 medium-sized hovercrafts or double the number of robots in Su Wu's arsenal. It was, in short, a nightmare-level task.
Naturally, Su Wu couldn't wait that long.
He pulled up the blueprints for the thermal power station and, with the help of artificial intelligence, broke them down into their component parts. After some thought, he categorized the components by their manufacturing difficulty.
The simplest and most numerous parts were assigned to subsidiary shelters, where workers could use basic tools to cut and assemble them manually. While this approach wasn't the most efficient and the quality of the components might only be average, the sheer number of workers in the subsidiary shelters would make up for it.
The more complex components were prioritized for production in the **industrial zone**, while the most difficult ones were assigned to the manufacturing center.
By distributing the workload this way, the total construction time was compressed to less than **120 hours**.
"For now, this will have to do," Su Wu said to himself. "Once the manufacturing center has more capacity, I can consider producing a batch of machine tools for the **Jingyuan Shelter**. That will make similar projects faster in the future. In the meantime, they can use the tools to produce basic goods or consumable parts for trade."
Producing machine tools didn't require survival points—only materials. And with Su Wu currently sitting on millions of tons of resources, even if most of them were coal, gasoline, and diesel, it would be more than enough to mass-produce standard machine tools.
However, it was worth noting that unless the manufacturing center expanded to produce more advanced components, even a large number of standard machine tools wouldn't be able to create high-end products like the **spider robots**.
After adding the thermal power station's construction task to the AI's execution list, Su Wu left the details to the system. Workers in the subsidiary shelters would soon begin manufacturing the simplest components, while the Farmhouse Shelter's industrial zones would take three to four days to complete the ongoing **spider robot production** before moving on to the power station.
With artificial intelligence ensuring everything was organized and efficient, Su Wu no longer needed to micromanage the process.
Having addressed the critical tasks for the Farmhouse Shelter, Su Wu turned his attention to a **small limestone quarry** in the distant mountains.
During the period when Su Wu was busy with urban rescue missions and integrating refugees, the quarry's construction had continued uninterrupted. After the **spider robots** delivered the necessary tools and materials, progress had been remarkably smooth.
Now, the site boasted a spacious underground area, where all the original production equipment had been relocated. Ventilation, water, and power lines had been fully installed. The only step left was a final power test before production could resume.
Of course, given the heavy rainfall on the surface, even with production resuming, the efficiency of the open-pit mining operations would likely drop significantly—potentially to half of what it had been before.
--Support me in Patreon for more chapters 35+ chapters in there
patreon.com/TLGod
Thanks!